Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day

Forty years ago, the first Earth Day (1970) was small, peaceful, non-commercial and did I say small? I spent part of Earth Day #1 on the diag of the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor; today, I will send part of Earth Day #40 on Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus. What I remember most about that first ED (my how abbreviations have shifted meanings), what I remember was the number of teach-ins. Teach-Ins were a product of the Vietnam War protest era. Rather than sit-in or be-in or trash-in; faculty and others on campuses around the world would hold teach-ins to present in-depth points of view on issues that might not normally be part of the present day university curriculum.

Even back in 1970, wind and solar power were being pushed as alternatives to petro-chemical fuels before the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 or the Iranian Oil Crisis of 1979. Recycling was a novelty in 1970, the Boy Scouts picked up newspapers but that was about it. But like today there were resources, here are some I came across this morning.

Earth Day official website, where you can learn about the big rally this Sunday in Washington D.C. and see how far we have come both in saving and destroying the planet.